Effect of Temperature-increase Rate and Terminal Temperature on the Solubilization of Sewage Sludge using Microwave Irradiation

Solubilization of sewage sludge creates favorable conditions for anaerobic microorganisms to produce biogas. In this paper, we quantify the effect of heating pretreatment on the degree of solubilization of sewage sludge. The pretreatment process was carried out using a lab-scale industrial microwave unit (2450 MHz frequency). Response surface analysis was applied to determine the combination of temperature-increase rate (ramp rate) (2.9 to 17.1℃/min) and terminal temperature (52 to 108℃). Both ramp rate and temperature significantly affected the solubilization degree of sludge. Within the design boundaries, the conditions predicted to maximize the solubilization degree of 15.8% were determined to be 2.9℃/min and 104℃.